Mila Kunis Was Told She Would Never Work Again After Refusing to Pose Half-Naked
It must have been an unreal and (beyond) disheartening moment for Mila Kunis when she was told, “You’ll never work in this town again.” But the Hollywood producer who said those words didn’t do so because Mila had committed a crime or offended anyone. She hadn’t bailed on a project or been a pain to work with. Frankly, all she had done was refuse to pose half-naked for a men’s magazine in order to promote a film. And for that, she was told that her career was over.
In a disturbing and incredibly important open letter that appeared on A Plus(a website co-founded by her husband, Ashton Kutcher), Mila, the star of That ’70s Show, Bad Moms and Black Swan, revealed the details around the sitch that displays the sexism that exists in the industry.
“What this producer may never realize is that he spoke aloud the exact fear every woman feels when confronted with gender bias in the workplace.” So friggin’ true. But she followed that by saying, “And guess what? The world didn’t end. The film made a lot of money and I did work in this town again, and again, and again.”
Though Mila herself found continued success, her letter addresses a study that shows that the “pay gap is closing at such a slow rate that it will be 136 years before women are paid equally to men. 136 years. And the pay gap is but one clear quantification of the acute undervaluing of the contributions of women in the workplace.”
Because of this and because she was being “insulted, sidelined, paid less, creatively ignored, and otherwise diminished based on [her] gender,” Mila started her own production company with three other women. “I’m done with compromising” and “I’m done with being compromised.” Well said, Mila.
What do you think about Mila’s letter? Tweet us @BritandCo!
(h/t NBC; photos via Frazer Harrison/Getty, Fox Searchlight Pictures)
